WILDLIFE officers have appealed to the public for information about a dolphin that was slashed across the throat and left on the lawn of a house in Bremer Bay, on Western Australia’s south coast.

The dolphin was dumped under a tree of a Bremer Bay property about 500 metres from the beach.

A wildlife officer from the Department of Environment and Conservation’s Nature Protection Branch in Albany will travel to Bremer Bay today to investigate the incident, question locals and examine the carcass.

Acting chief wildlife officer Kevin Morrison said it was not clear whether the dolphin had been slashed before or after its death.

“The photos provided to us indicate that someone inflicted quite deep serious wounds to the throat of the dolphin, but it’s not possible to say conclusively if it was while the animal was still alive, or post mortem,” Mr Morrison said.

“It could have been determined only if we’d been able to access the carcass of the animal while it was still fresh and a proper forensic done.

“Unfortunately now, the only way we’d be able to determine whether the animal was killed or the injury inflicted post-mortem is if we get information from members of the public.

“We’re relying heavily on information from the public in order to get a result.”

Mr Morrison said it was believed the animal was a striped dolphin, but more would be known when the wildlife officer examined the carcass tomorrow.

The officer would be liaising with police from Ongerup investigating the disturbing incident.

THE days of scraping car rego stickers off windows are over in Western Australia, which tomorrow becomes the first state to abolish them.

Cutting-edge technology being used by West Australian police has made the stickers redundant, saving millions of dollars.

Police superintendent Lance Martin said hand-held computers were now providing officers with instant advice on registration expiries — as well as an extraordinary amount of other data — simply by tapping in a request.

A car’s owner, previous owners, registration status, even the engine number, were all available within seconds to officers on the beat.

“We can also do detailed searches on people, we can access the criminal records of every person in Australia, we can bring up their mugshots,” he said.

“I can even have an officer carrying one of these hand-held devices in the middle of Broome (1660km from Perth) and pull up an electronic mapping system to track where that officer is in real time, accurate to about five metres. It’s amazing.”

Western Australia is the only state with the hand-held TADIS-lite computers, which have revolutionised life for officers on foot patrol, horseback, pushbikes and motorbikes.

They were rolled out over the past few months.

Superintendent Martin said the expanded access to computers was “the tipping point” for getting rid of car stickers and motorbike tags. Previously, if police spotted an expired registration tag, they had to radio through to base and then wait for someone to run the registration on the land-based computer system.

“It was a very time-consuming approach,” he said.

“Today they just type in a registration number (from their hand-held computer) and within seconds they’ll have all of the information associated with that vehicle.”

The innovation had made the visible stickers irrelevant.

The West Australian technology is fast becoming the envy of forces across the nation, many of whom have sent delegations to Perth to examine it.

It began with larger TADIS computers fitted to police cars, reportedly the most advanced in Australia, and progressed this year to the unique hand-held version.

“Other states are particularly interested in the hand-held units,” Superintendent Martin said.

“This is far bigger than the registration stickers.

“Just in the metropolitan area now with our mobile data devises, we can do over six million enquiries a year. It’s massive.”

The West Australian Department of Transport, which administers vehicle registrations, confirmed it also had been approached by other states about the decision to phase out registration tags.

To ensure drivers were comfortable with the change, they can now phone a hotline or check online to clarify the status of their registration.

Malaysia Airlines is also offering return flights to Perth in Western Australia, travellers can buy return tickets for as little as £539 per person.

The Malaysia Airlines sale prices are available to travellers who book before November 30th 2009 and travel either between November 9th 2009 and December 10th 2009 or March 1st 2010 and June 15th 2010.

Industry leaders in Australia are urging the Australian federal government to overhaul its skilled immigration program to address a looming shortage of workers.

Recent changes by DIAC to the skilled migration visa processing times have meant that many hundreds of applicants for visas have been told that they may have to wait up to 3 years and this is slated to impact on several massive projects announced for Western Australia, including the Gorgon gas development, expansion of the Pluto LNG plant and the development of the Mid-West iron ore region including the massive Gindalbie iron ore mine which will need upwards of 1500 workers during the construction stage.

The recent Australian Financial Review (afr.com.au) has stated that skills shortages are set to intensify in coming years.

The article calls for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to urgently look at reviewing Australian visa policies to ensure that these shortages can be filled. More immigrants will be needed to work in Australia in industries such as energy, mining and IT which, according to the review, face a major skills shortage unless something drastic is done to alleviate it.

Major Australian firms such as infrastructure giant United Group have also released warnings to the government that they will be facing skills shortages within 12 to 18 months.

The firm’s CEO Richard Leupen declared that the shortage has been brought about as a result of the tightening of the business visa rules. He says this has coincided with the company’s reduction in training programmes for staff in response to the recession.

In the IT industry, the need is even more acute. A study, commissioned by Microsoft Australia, has found the IT industry will generate $21 billion for GDP by the end of 2013 but any potential growth could be stifled by the shortage of skilled labour.

Bruce Mills, chief executive of IT consultancy firm 3W, says as more IT work becomes available, such as the National Broadband Network, companies will struggle to grow and obtain new projects if the number of skilled workers remains flat.

“What has occurred is that everything that was done to avoid the global financial crisis has sort of spilled over, and so by the time any of the results were felt any issue that caused the crisis is over, and that is what has happened with the tightening of 457 visas.”

WESTERN AUSTRALIA — The first gold has been poured and the initial copper concentrate shipment made at the Boddington mine belonging to Newmont Mining of Denver. At full production, this will be Australia’s largest gold mine.

The Boddington mine is a large open pit 130 km southeast of Perth within the Saddleback Greenstone Belt. Newmont believes Boddington has significant exploration potential, with gold reserves increasing from 16.6 million oz in 2007 to 20.1 million oz in 2008 and an expected mine life in excess of 24 years.

The Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education and Child Care Kate Ellis announced $5.8 million for three new Early Learning and Care Centres in Western Australia.

The Australian Government will invest $5.8 million in building new centres at Karratha in the state’s north-west, and Darch and Mirrabooka in Perth’s northern suburbs.

The Karratha centre will be built at Tambrey Primary School with $2.2 million of Australian Government funding. It will provide 120 new long day care places for Pilbara youngsters.

Woodside Energy will provide more than $4 million over three years to the centre.

“This partnership is a fine example of how the Federal Government and local industry are working together to deliver high quality care and education for Australian children and their families,” Ms Ellis said.

“The Pilbara is key to our nation’s economic development and this service will help companies, like Woodside, to attract and retain a skilled workforce.”

About $1.8 million in Australian Government funding will be invested in centres at Darch and Mirrabooka.

Ashdale Primary School will host the Darch centre and will offer at least 50 new long day care places, while the Mirrabooka Early Learning and Care Centre will also offer about 50 new places.

All three centres will be built by 2010 on land contributed by the WA Government.

The construction of the centres on school sites presents opportunities for future integration of education and care services with junior schooling.

“The Australian Government is working hard to provide families with access to quality early childhood education and care,” Ms Ellis said.

“These centres will also provide more job opportunities and boost local economies.”

The Australian Government is continuing to discuss an Early Learning and Care Centre for Port Hedland with the WA Government.

An Autism-specific Early Learning and Care Centre was announced for Perth last month.

The new centres form part of the Australian Government’s $114.5 million plan to build 38 Early Learning and Care Centres by 2010.

This initiative is part of the Australian Government’s Education Revolution, which is improving early childhood care and education for Australia’s children and families.

For four UK mates and rellies

Four friends and family members in the UK can win the holiday of a lifetime to visit their friends and family in Western Australia.

The prize includes four flights to Perth, accommodation nights in Perth, a side trip to Kununurra, tours, spending money and more.
To enter from WA, you will need the codeword in the August / September edition of Whingeing Pom magazine from your nearest newsagent.Enter now

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